The COVID-19 pandemic has reignited the age-old battle of Boomers versus Millennials, but this time it's focused on who has dealt with the virus better.
The two generations have long been played against each other from the housing crisis to climate change, and find themselves clashing once again.
When the pandemic began tensions escalated with the coining of the term 'Boomer remover', referring to COVID-19's higher death rate for older people.
While Millennials defended the term as a joke, claims Boomers weren't taking the lockdown seriously and contradictory reports of Millennials flouting rules to party soon added to the tension.
Older generations fought back on social media sharing the phrase, "your great great grandfather fought in the war, you're only being asked to stay home on the sofa".
That coupled with speculation over which generation is most at risk from the overall impacts of the virus soon ignited a whole new battle of the generations.
While Boomers are most at risk from the health issues associated with the virus, Millennials are facing mass unemployment and the task of rebuilding the economy in the years to come.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson addressed the impact on Millennials and young people saying generations of Kiwis will be paying for economic recovery.
The stress and strain from coronavirus has exacerbated an already present divide between older generations and younger ones.
But is one generation really taking the virus more seriously and does when you were born predict how well you will cope with a pandemic?
While experts are somewhat divided on the topic, clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire says probably not.
Maguire says prior vulnerability plays a much bigger part in peoples' ability to cope with stressful situations, such as a pandemic, than age.
"When you look at the minimal amount of research that has been coming out, and you look at prior pandemics like SARS, it would be indicative at this point that there is not a generational difference and actually differences come from things like prior mental health conditions and socioeconomic status."
"Peoples' underlying circumstances and history are far more predictive than what generation you are born into.
Maguire says people who are able to stay calm, practice self care and stay connected with friends and family will deal with crisis better.
Boomers
When it comes to Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, Maguire says while life experience can be helpful, it doesn't necessarily translate to coping better in difficult situations
"It's not a sweeping brush on how people cope.
"Perhaps older people who have built resilience from prior life experience and taken learnings and practise skills like emotion regulation and reaching out to people may have a better bank of tools, but you can also find people that have lived through life experiences and not coped well and COVID-19 may, therefore, trigger unhelpful experiences for those individuals."
Generation X
Generation X, or the sandwich generation born from 1965 to 1976, tend to be worried about looking after everyone and might also be feeling stress over job vulnerabilities Maguire says.
This could make them the generation most at risk of burnout she says.
"They are looking after parents and they are looking after children, that's really stressful for that cohort. And they are potentially one of the cohorts most impacted by job loss.
Millennials
Millennials, born from 1977 to 1995, are the generation experiencing the most anxiety about the future and their kids' future, Maquire says.
She says they tend to be the generation most concerned with the long term impacts of COVID-19.
"They are potentially experiencing heightened anxiety about the future of the world and what it will mean for them and for their family and for travel."
Generation Z and the Silent Generation
Maguire says the oldest and youngest generation are both dealing with issues like loneliness, social isolation and the mental health issues associated with them.
Generation Z could however have an easier time when it comes to the economic impacts but Maguire warns that will depend on their family dynamic.
"If [Generation Z] are in a safe family without economic stress, potentially their worry or anxiety may be less because they don't have pressures like paying rent. They might be at uni and seeing it as a free holiday," she says.
"But again there are also university students saying, 'I'm paying rent at my hostel and not even living there and I am trying to help my parents out at home' so it is so murky."
So what about the so-called "COVID Generation"?
Concerns over how the pandemic will impact children born into the generation have swirled since it began. There is worry that COVID-19 could completely shape the lives of children born into it.
Again Maguire says the families people are born into are more telliong than when they are born.
"It's about the family circumstances they are born into and the financial security of the family and how the world continues to respond."
It is "quite dangerous" to predict that the pandemic will shape a generation at this point, she says.
She says ultimately how people cope will come down to how vulnerable they were before the pandemic.
